The Territorial Army has been ordered to halt all activity for six months to save £20 million — in the same week that the Foreign Office has given £12 million to Third World farmers, £3 million to Indonesia and £2 million to 150,000 Yemeni refugees.
The freeze on all TA training will inevitably impact on the army’s performance in Afghanistan, as about 1,200 TA personnel serve in that theatre. It means that TA members called up for active service will not have the same level of preparation as full-time soldiers or TA recruits already serving there.
The scandal of a cutback in training follows earlier reports that British troops are supplied with insufficient and low grade equipment. This puts troops at an even greater risk than before in the already extremely dangerous Helmand province.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “These are challenging times and like all Government departments, we have to live within our means. We routinely review our spending to balance priorities, focusing on the highest priorities including on our operations, particularly in Afghanistan.”
There is obviously no shortage of money for foreign aid handouts, however. At the same time the TA cutbacks were made, the Department of International Development announced a number of grants to the Third World, which included the following:
– On 8 October 2009, International Development secretary Douglas Alexander increased British taxpayer support to Indonesia to £3 million to provide help to earthquake victims and to protect that country “against future disasters” although it is not said exactly how that is to be achieved.
– On 9 October 2009, Mr Alexander increased British taxpayer-funded aid by £2 million to give “support to those driven out of their homes by the ongoing conflict in Yemen.”
This is on top of the £2.54 million already provided to the UN World Food Programme agency operation in Sa’dah since December 2007.
– On 10 October 2009 Mr Alexander announced that British taxpayers have given £12 million in new funding for Fairtrade, to “help twice as many farmers in the developing world work their way out of poverty.”
The DFID has supported Fairtrade since 1997 and has provided £3m to finance work to “develop more products.”
In other words, the lives of British soldiers are not worth as much as farmers in the Third World, according to the Government.
